2025-26 UMD College Park Supplemental Essays

With roughly 60,000 applicants per year, you might think that the University of Maryland College Park admissions committee would want to create a fast-paced assembly line for application reviews that is 99% based on hard numbers like GPA and SAT scores. Yet, in addition to those important data points and the 650-word Common App essay, prospective Terrapins are also asked to complete six short “Complete this Sentence” supplemental responses as part of a genuinely holistic admissions process. Today, we’ll explore the UMD supplemental essays.

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As the University of Maryland becomes more selective, applicants need to find ways to stand out from the competition. Fortunately, these six short-answer responses provide just such an opportunity. Below are the UMD supplemental essays for the 2026-27 admissions cycle along with tips about how to address each one. All six carry over unchanged from last year.

Before you begin: how this format actually works

Applicants must complete each of the following fill-in-the-blank responses in 650 characters, not words, or roughly 100 words apiece. That is about two to three sentences.

This is one of the tightest constraints in college admissions, and it changes how you should write. A few things follow from it:

There is no room for a warm-up sentence. Start at the specific thing and stay there.
Six responses read consecutively by one person means variety matters more than polish. If your robotics team anchors three of the six, you have used half your space to say one thing. Map out which part of your life each response will cover before you draft.
Character counts include spaces and punctuation. Draft in a counter, not by eye.
A weird, true detail beats a resume line every time. These prompts exist to surface personality, not achievement, and UMD can already see your achievements elsewhere.

UMD Supplemental Essays – 2026-27 Prompts

1) If I could travel anywhere, I would go to… (650 characters)

There’s nothing wrong with simply naming a popular or exotic city if you wish, but don’t feel like that is your sole option. For example, you could travel to see a particular painting in an art gallery in Finland. You could travel through time to have a conversation with 19th-century women’s rights hero Elizabeth Cady Stanton. You could travel to Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument to dig for dinosaur fossils alongside paleontologists. There is no shortage of ways to create an answer that contains more depth and meaning than simply saying “Paris, because it has beautiful architecture.”

Note that the prompt rewards a particular place, year, or experience rather than a general statement about loving travel. The destination is the setup; why you would go there is the answer.

2) The most interesting fact I ever learned from research was… (650 characters)

“But wait, I’m a 17 or 18-year-old who has done some experiments in Chemistry class, and I didn’t exactly win a Nobel Prize for learning how to safely use a Bunsen burner.” Applicants sometimes panic when they first read this question. However, the only expectation is that you cite a finding from someone else’s research that you found meaningful and enlightening. If you aren’t interested in the hard sciences, that’s perfectly fine. There is plenty of research that takes place outside of the STEM realm. Some ideas include:

Psychology
Sociology
History
Sports
Fitness
Finance
Environment and climate

Note that the prompt does not say your research. A fact you encountered in a podcast, a documentary, or a book counts fully, provided you can say why it stuck with you.

3) In addition to my major, my academic interests include… (650 characters)

Note the operative phrase here: “in addition to my major.” This is a chance to talk about one or more of your academic passions that are a) an extension of your major, b) separate from your major, or c) part of an interdisciplinary connection between your major and another discipline.

The second keyword is “academic,” so make sure the subject or subjects you discuss are at least somewhat related to an area that could be studied in college. Use this prompt to showcase your intellectual range, and remember that “academic” in a college setting means more than basic high school subjects like biology, geometry, or world history. In a collegiate setting, there are offerings in psychology, art, criminal justice, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and hundreds of other expansive options, so the sky’s the limit.

4) My favorite thing about last Monday was… (650 characters)

You could look back at your calendar or old texts in a quest to uncover whether last Monday was the day you reheated beef stroganoff for dinner or the night you ordered takeout while studying for a Calculus final. However, there is another way to approach the question, one that removes the random and limiting presence of a specific weekday altogether. Instead, reframe it as: “What is something that has happened to me recently that may have seemed small or everyday, but truly mattered to me and communicates something about my character?”

Think of this prompt as a chance to show off your skills of observation and reflection. Even in 650 characters, try to paint a picture of your appreciation for one of life’s small moments. This is the prompt where applicants most often reach for something impressive, and it is the one where that instinct hurts most. UMD is not asking what you accomplished. It is asking whether you notice things.

5) Something you might not know about me is… (650 characters)

During an admissions interview, the conversation between an applicant and an admissions officer has the chance to veer into more personal territory. During this exchange, commonalities are revealed and a human connection is forged. Unfortunately, the University of Maryland is not able to offer evaluative interviews. Therefore, you should think of this question as a substitute chance to become more than just a name on an application.

Whether you decide to pick something light and humorous or sincere and vulnerable, either is perfectly fine, aim for something that cannot be gleaned elsewhere in your application materials. One example of what not to do would be to say, “I work as a camp counselor in the summer” if that was already listed in the Activities section.

6) The diversity prompt (650 characters)

Because we know that diversity benefits the educational experience of all students, the University of Maryland values diversity in all of its many forms. This includes (but is not limited to) racial, socio-economic, gender, geographical, and sexual orientation. We are interested in hearing about your own individual life experiences. In a few sentences, will you please describe how you have learned, grown, been inspired or developed skills through one or more components of diversity.

Remember, diversity can apply to race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, geography, and gender. Even diversity of thought is on the table. The goal is to think about your own experiences and observations in this realm. Is there a particular situation, challenge, or aspect of your own or someone else’s identity that has enabled you to learn or grow? Perhaps you’ve learned how to advocate for yourself or someone else, been exposed to a new way of thinking, learned how to have difficult conversations, educated others, or been inspired by a peer’s story.

Note the specific verbs UMD uses: learned, grown, been inspired, developed skills. This is a question about change rather than a question about identity, which means the essay needs a before and an after. At 650 characters, one concrete moment of learning will always beat a definition of diversity. Ground it in something that actually happened and skip the abstract framing entirely.

How important are the UMD supplemental essays?

The essays at the University of Maryland are an “important” factor in their evaluation process, alongside class rank, recommendations, talent/ability, first-generation status, and state residency. This ranks higher than factors such as extracurricular activities, legacy status, or work experience.

Two things follow. First, UMD offers no evaluative interviews, so these six responses plus your Common App essay are the entirety of your voice in the file. Second, and easy to miss, the six responses total only about 600 words combined. That is less than a single Common App personal statement, spread across six separate impressions. It is far less work than most schools on your list will ask for, and it means there is nowhere for a weak sentence to hide.

Want personalized assistance with your UMD supplemental essays?

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2026-27 University of Maryland (UMD) Supplemental Essays – Prompts & Advice